Book recommendations

[spokenonlyonce]

I'm taking a seminary course this quarter on Liberation Theology, and even though I haven't even gone to the first class yet (it's on Thursday), I am SO excited to write my paper on Fat theology!

The only book I can find so far is this one from Amazon: The Fat Jesus: Christianity and Body Image, but I haven't read it yet, so I don't know how good

Comments

[msphat]

I went ahead and bought The Fat Jesus, and while it's not with me right now, here are some thoughts: it is great that this book exists. It's a beginning of thinking about fat people from a Christian liberation theology perspective, but I really don't think that Isherwood has done her homework re: fat acceptance and HAES. It seems like there are some spots in this book that have a wee bit of a "love the sinner, hate the sin" mentality re: fat, which are hard to read in a book that purportedly takes up the case for the full humanity and dignity of fat people within Christianity.

So, I really believe this book is a start, but it's not quite all there yet. I absolutely think that Christians with an interest in the intersection of fatness and Christianity (especially those with fat acceptance/liberation and/or HAES perspectives) absolutely need to be out writing articles and books from their perspectives.

Body theology is another more general area that could provide some great material. I was introduced to Lisa Isherwood via

[spokenonlyonce]

I will definitely post my thoughts and findings here... and I am going to ask the prof for recommendations too. We are supposed to write 10 pages on a particular liberation theologian, and then ten pages of our own theology around that particular issue. If I can't find someone really good, I might ask her if I can tweak the assignment a bit... perhaps 10 pages of critical analysis of current books about body theology, eating disorders, etc. and then another 10 pages of my own theology in response. I am thinking it might even be good to see if she thinks I could write it in a publishable form because some of us need to start getting stuff out there!